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'Illegal' Traveller: An Auto-Ethnography of Borders
Based on fieldwork among undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers Illegal Traveller offers a narrative of the polysemic nature of borders, border politics, and rituals and performances of border-crossing. Interjecting personal experiences into ethnographic writing it is 'a form of self-narrative that places the self within a social context'.
160 pages, Hardcover
First published April 14, 2010
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May 22, 2014
Shahram Khosravi’s Illegal Traveller is an emotive, well-worked auto-ethnography that chronicles the author’s westward emigration from post-revolutionary Iran (1986) as well as the experiences of fellow undocumented migrants nearly twenty years later (2004-2008). Though filled with thick, descriptive narrative sections, the text is interjected by equally thorough and accessible theoretical discussion about the deeply complex elements of ‘illegal’ migration. Contextualized in his own ‘illegal’ travels from the Bakhtiari region of Iran to his present Stockholm, Sweden, Shahram Khorsavi’s gripping auto-ethnography gives voice to border crossers and refugees who have been systematically stripped of their rights by the hegemonic nation-state system. Khosravi’s sincere auto-ethnographic effort not only personalizes a discussion of geopolitically marginalized peoples, but also serves as an important statement for the rights of migrants. By challenging the socially constructed concepts of legality, citizenship, and political borders, Khosravi engages his audience in a conversation overlooked in the age of transnational travel and globalization.
Khosravi’s lucid, narrative style enables the autobiographical elements of the text to frame his theoretical deconstruction of borders, citizenship, and criminality. In each chapter of his migrant journey, he pauses at various points to highlight and problematize difficulties of the experience that result from institutionalized enforcement of borders. Doing so, he reminds the reader of the many individual factors that can affect the fate of the traveler. He is particularly aware of the corporeality of immigrant travelers, noting that their bodies are commodified, dehumanized, and subject to a number of human rights abuses, such as trafficking, forced labor, and sexual assault. These are crucial observations as Khosravi urges for a reconsideration of migrant rights. Importantly, in bringing attention to myriad potential complications, Khosravi still avoids essentializing the migrant experience. Never does he claim to capture every struggle of migrants. Rather, he uses his experience, the experiences of his informants, and the experiences of travelers between other countries to suggest that there is much more to illegal travel than what is represented in present debates on immigration.
Aside from Khosravi’s masterful and touching story telling, the most enjoyable aspect of the book is its accessible argumentation for migrant rights. The text is still purely ethnographic in its presentation of research, references, and theory, but at times, Khosravi’s clarity and conciseness make the reader forget that the work is academic. Without too densely situating his arguments in political and cultural theory, he is able to unpack everyday terms like “criminal”, “illegal”, and “border” and present them as wrongly totalizing concepts. He argues that criminality, for example, is imposed on migrants by the nation-state as punishment for threatening its border, or sovereignty. Once a traveler has crossed a border ‘illegally’, they are vulnerable to penalization, per discretion of the state, which is manifested both directly through actions against the migrant and indirectly through denial of protection by the law. As ‘illegal’ travel is not a phenomena that occurs naturally, to penalize the traveler for crossing a border is to undermine their “right to have rights” (Khosravi 121), as noted in the seventh chapter of the text. Yet, even as Khosravi shifts responsibility for violations against migrants to the nation-state, he is adamant that agency still lies with migrants. He ignores the binary classification of reactive or proactive (13) migrants and instead takes into account the many considerations that accompany the decision to migrate, including the extent to which economic privilege enables emigration. By not representing them as passive and helpless, Khosravi is further giving presence to the depoliticized voice of illegal travellers.
Illegal Traveller resists romanticizing the autobiographical experience in favor of urgently calling for the consideration of the rights of stateless peoples. Khosravi claims that in order for migrants to be free of systematic targeting and oppression, the concepts of citizenship and political belonging must be purged from the assignment of human rights (123). While the text does not necessarily provide alternatives on the scale needed to incorporate recognition of emigration as a right, it nevertheless compellingly articulates the neglected, human side of the conversation on immigration. Personalizing the migration narrative allows Khosravi to critically and morally engage the reader not just so that they may further the discussion, but that they may embrace and extend the “unconditional hospitality” (129) that saved lives like his. With his stories told and pleas made, Shahram Khorsavi leaves us with a touching, inspiring, but wanting account of a people still struggling for recognition.
Khosravi’s lucid, narrative style enables the autobiographical elements of the text to frame his theoretical deconstruction of borders, citizenship, and criminality. In each chapter of his migrant journey, he pauses at various points to highlight and problematize difficulties of the experience that result from institutionalized enforcement of borders. Doing so, he reminds the reader of the many individual factors that can affect the fate of the traveler. He is particularly aware of the corporeality of immigrant travelers, noting that their bodies are commodified, dehumanized, and subject to a number of human rights abuses, such as trafficking, forced labor, and sexual assault. These are crucial observations as Khosravi urges for a reconsideration of migrant rights. Importantly, in bringing attention to myriad potential complications, Khosravi still avoids essentializing the migrant experience. Never does he claim to capture every struggle of migrants. Rather, he uses his experience, the experiences of his informants, and the experiences of travelers between other countries to suggest that there is much more to illegal travel than what is represented in present debates on immigration.
Aside from Khosravi’s masterful and touching story telling, the most enjoyable aspect of the book is its accessible argumentation for migrant rights. The text is still purely ethnographic in its presentation of research, references, and theory, but at times, Khosravi’s clarity and conciseness make the reader forget that the work is academic. Without too densely situating his arguments in political and cultural theory, he is able to unpack everyday terms like “criminal”, “illegal”, and “border” and present them as wrongly totalizing concepts. He argues that criminality, for example, is imposed on migrants by the nation-state as punishment for threatening its border, or sovereignty. Once a traveler has crossed a border ‘illegally’, they are vulnerable to penalization, per discretion of the state, which is manifested both directly through actions against the migrant and indirectly through denial of protection by the law. As ‘illegal’ travel is not a phenomena that occurs naturally, to penalize the traveler for crossing a border is to undermine their “right to have rights” (Khosravi 121), as noted in the seventh chapter of the text. Yet, even as Khosravi shifts responsibility for violations against migrants to the nation-state, he is adamant that agency still lies with migrants. He ignores the binary classification of reactive or proactive (13) migrants and instead takes into account the many considerations that accompany the decision to migrate, including the extent to which economic privilege enables emigration. By not representing them as passive and helpless, Khosravi is further giving presence to the depoliticized voice of illegal travellers.
Illegal Traveller resists romanticizing the autobiographical experience in favor of urgently calling for the consideration of the rights of stateless peoples. Khosravi claims that in order for migrants to be free of systematic targeting and oppression, the concepts of citizenship and political belonging must be purged from the assignment of human rights (123). While the text does not necessarily provide alternatives on the scale needed to incorporate recognition of emigration as a right, it nevertheless compellingly articulates the neglected, human side of the conversation on immigration. Personalizing the migration narrative allows Khosravi to critically and morally engage the reader not just so that they may further the discussion, but that they may embrace and extend the “unconditional hospitality” (129) that saved lives like his. With his stories told and pleas made, Shahram Khorsavi leaves us with a touching, inspiring, but wanting account of a people still struggling for recognition.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 12, 2013
Brilliant, informative and touching. He was my teacher in social antrophology in Sweden. I recommend anyone who's looking to study in Stockholm University to take his course.
May 26, 2014
Shahram Koshravi’s book is a brilliant example of auto-ethnography, in which personal experiences and ethnographic writing techniques merge into his expressive language. He pauses his story line and flashes back to explain the historical background, social life, geography, and politics in Iran. In doing this, he is not only talking about Iran and its border countries; in fact, he informs us about the global power relations and economy politics of border-crossing through providing examples from several countries including India, Turkey, Greece, and the US. In this way, Koshravi skillfully situates his story within the wider historical context.
The reader flows with Koshravi’s non-linear narratives in crossing borders, negotiating with “smugglers,” waiting anxiously in a vehicle, or questioning his shame and homelessness. The reader accompanies Koshravi in his struggles of crossing borders, and thus, she is more than to be the mere witness of this history. Although some stories are very profound and dramatic, the writer is meticulous not to over-dramatize incidents that he experienced in his journey. Instead, he utilizes simple sentences within a poetic narrative, which is the constitutive narrative style of the book. Just as Walter Benjamin’s Angelus Novus (the angel of history), which was kept in his luggage until his dead in exile, Koshravi carries a hand-made map of Isfahan, which he drew to keep up his memory of “home.” Hence, both Benjamin and Koshravi share this intimate and constructive melancholy.
Since he does not claim to be objective, the writer’s subjective migration experience, which includes a refugee persona trained through performance at the borders of nation-states, becomes our truthful knowledge about the borders. The reader sees and interprets the world from Koshravi’s eyes: The geography of Isfahan, its plantation, the variety of food eaten at home and the starvation at the borders, as well as the life in refugee camps are imagined by the reader as the writer sees them. This total subjectivity makes his ethnographic work very accessible.
Koshravi argues that his book is about hospitality; however, it is also about “shame.” A variety of shame is expressed by the writer due to his in-betweenness as a refugee: Shame for being undocumented, shame for not being “real” refugee, shame for not being able to help the others, who are abused and oppressed in different processes of migration, and shame for leaving beloved ones at home in the middle of the war. Near the end of the book, Koshravi learns how to inhabit in his shame; yet he transfers his feeling of shame to the reader, who is transformed in Koshravi’s footsteps.
The book also shows us the arbitrariness of law, the threshold of docile bodies between legality and illegality, and sacrificed bodies, which are subjected to necropolitics, rape, and harassment. Exclusionary category of “proper” citizenship is only constituted though binaries, such as hospitality/hostility, mobile/immobile, and legal/illegal. Therefore, to create mobile national elites, one needs an immobile refugee, who does not have a home to arrive at the end of each journey in this so-called cosmopolitan world. Koshravi discloses the naked constructedness of words and their signified concepts. For example, “smuggler” is frequently related to a criminal personality, though, Koshravi’s smugglers are mere “assistants” helping needy people to cross the borders; they are contributors to globalization (from below).
In this book, Koshravi examines the international economy politics of border transgression and refugee rights. He provides examples from different countries emphasizing their similarities, such as “inclusive exclusion,” in their migration policies. The coercive power relations within the global political economy produces a border and migration system for its own sake because the sovereign always needs cheap labor, such as Armenian workers in Turkey, Mexican workers in the US, or Afghans in Iran. In other words, Koshravi’s story is “only a fragment of a longer history of racism and hatred;” it is “one detail in the continuum of racial othering, dehumanizing the one who are of another color, belief or culture” (84).
The reader flows with Koshravi’s non-linear narratives in crossing borders, negotiating with “smugglers,” waiting anxiously in a vehicle, or questioning his shame and homelessness. The reader accompanies Koshravi in his struggles of crossing borders, and thus, she is more than to be the mere witness of this history. Although some stories are very profound and dramatic, the writer is meticulous not to over-dramatize incidents that he experienced in his journey. Instead, he utilizes simple sentences within a poetic narrative, which is the constitutive narrative style of the book. Just as Walter Benjamin’s Angelus Novus (the angel of history), which was kept in his luggage until his dead in exile, Koshravi carries a hand-made map of Isfahan, which he drew to keep up his memory of “home.” Hence, both Benjamin and Koshravi share this intimate and constructive melancholy.
Since he does not claim to be objective, the writer’s subjective migration experience, which includes a refugee persona trained through performance at the borders of nation-states, becomes our truthful knowledge about the borders. The reader sees and interprets the world from Koshravi’s eyes: The geography of Isfahan, its plantation, the variety of food eaten at home and the starvation at the borders, as well as the life in refugee camps are imagined by the reader as the writer sees them. This total subjectivity makes his ethnographic work very accessible.
Koshravi argues that his book is about hospitality; however, it is also about “shame.” A variety of shame is expressed by the writer due to his in-betweenness as a refugee: Shame for being undocumented, shame for not being “real” refugee, shame for not being able to help the others, who are abused and oppressed in different processes of migration, and shame for leaving beloved ones at home in the middle of the war. Near the end of the book, Koshravi learns how to inhabit in his shame; yet he transfers his feeling of shame to the reader, who is transformed in Koshravi’s footsteps.
The book also shows us the arbitrariness of law, the threshold of docile bodies between legality and illegality, and sacrificed bodies, which are subjected to necropolitics, rape, and harassment. Exclusionary category of “proper” citizenship is only constituted though binaries, such as hospitality/hostility, mobile/immobile, and legal/illegal. Therefore, to create mobile national elites, one needs an immobile refugee, who does not have a home to arrive at the end of each journey in this so-called cosmopolitan world. Koshravi discloses the naked constructedness of words and their signified concepts. For example, “smuggler” is frequently related to a criminal personality, though, Koshravi’s smugglers are mere “assistants” helping needy people to cross the borders; they are contributors to globalization (from below).
In this book, Koshravi examines the international economy politics of border transgression and refugee rights. He provides examples from different countries emphasizing their similarities, such as “inclusive exclusion,” in their migration policies. The coercive power relations within the global political economy produces a border and migration system for its own sake because the sovereign always needs cheap labor, such as Armenian workers in Turkey, Mexican workers in the US, or Afghans in Iran. In other words, Koshravi’s story is “only a fragment of a longer history of racism and hatred;” it is “one detail in the continuum of racial othering, dehumanizing the one who are of another color, belief or culture” (84).
February 14, 2017
Everyone should read this book.
July 17, 2021
Cercherò di spiegare in breve l'importanza di questo libro. È importante al punto che una versione semplificata dovrebbe essere diffusa alle elementari e medie; una versione quasi esatta invece alle superiori. Questo libro ti mette di fronte a un sacco di interrogativi e, cosa fondamentale, ti mette di fronte al tuo credo e, in definitiva, a te stess*. Io, classe 1982, donna, bianca, lesbica, atea, aspirante anarchica, sono messa di fronte al mio "razzismo interiorizzato". Così, come qualche settimana fa sono stata messa davanti alla mia "omofobia interiorizzata" (nonostante io sia PARTE della comunità lgbtq+).
Questo significa che non possiamo farci un'idea delle cose guardandole sempre da UN UNICO punto di vista, anche se ovviamente è difficile, o non sempre facile, trovarne altri.
Oggi però è più facile di quando io ero piccola ed è proprio da quando si è piccol* che bisognerebbe essere INCORAGGIAT* a cercarli.
Leggete questo libro.
Questo significa che non possiamo farci un'idea delle cose guardandole sempre da UN UNICO punto di vista, anche se ovviamente è difficile, o non sempre facile, trovarne altri.
Oggi però è più facile di quando io ero piccola ed è proprio da quando si è piccol* che bisognerebbe essere INCORAGGIAT* a cercarli.
Leggete questo libro.
October 31, 2024
This is one of the most impactful books I have ever read.
I can still vividly recall the day I first realized how my privilege ensures my unconditional mobility. I understood that my mobility is not only dependent on my nationality - it is codependent on other countries' acceptance of my presence in their country. This was something I had taken for granted until the day I began planning two of my friends' potential visit to Norway over Christmas. Whilst cheerfully anticipating and planning my friends' first visit to Norway, "borders" was still, to me, just another security and passport check. "Borders", in my head, has been synonymous with "adventures", "opportunities" and "cheap candy". That was until I checked the Norwegian Foreign ministry's policies regarding tourist visas for a Malawian and Zimbabwean, and the result clearly stated: "If you are to visit friends or be a tourist in Norway, you will normally not obtain a visa." I do not know what hurt me the most at the time - when I was three years younger and blissfully ignorant of other people's racialized immobility - to, for the first time, see how institutionalised racism is deeply embedded in Norway's tourist policies, or to tell my friends why they cannot come to Norway for Christmas.
This was my first encounter with how borders can, for some people, be synonymous with "restrictions", "limitations" and "hostility". Whilst I found it heartbreaking that my friends are less mobile than myself due to their nationality, they still have (limited) mobility given their citizenship. Khosravi's auto-ethnography discusses people who are stripped of their citizenship and are not just immobilized, but illegalized in their travels to find safety outside of their country of origin. In Khosravi's travel from Iran to Sweden, he becomes an "anti-citizen", a person who are stripped of human rights given his lack papers to prove his belonging to a nation-state, and consequently a person who is criminalized as a result of this.
This book made me reflect on how I can belong to a country where we punish humans who have suffered more loss than anyone can do. People who have left everything - their family, their homeland - because they realize that safety is no longer viable there. Who risk their life to find safety in a country where they are considered so less worthy that suicide attempts are considered to be a tool to gain attention.
My scepticism towards the West has previously been rooted in their colonial atrocities and systematic oppression and exploitation of people outside their own countries' borders. This book opened my eyes to the vile and unjustifiable treatment of undocumented people within their borders - people they deem as "criminals" and "burdens" because of their own sickening obsession with control, regulation and the continuation of White supremacy.
"Democracy should be judged not only by how they treat their members but by how they treat their strangers."
I am an embodiment of everything I am against.
I can still vividly recall the day I first realized how my privilege ensures my unconditional mobility. I understood that my mobility is not only dependent on my nationality - it is codependent on other countries' acceptance of my presence in their country. This was something I had taken for granted until the day I began planning two of my friends' potential visit to Norway over Christmas. Whilst cheerfully anticipating and planning my friends' first visit to Norway, "borders" was still, to me, just another security and passport check. "Borders", in my head, has been synonymous with "adventures", "opportunities" and "cheap candy". That was until I checked the Norwegian Foreign ministry's policies regarding tourist visas for a Malawian and Zimbabwean, and the result clearly stated: "If you are to visit friends or be a tourist in Norway, you will normally not obtain a visa." I do not know what hurt me the most at the time - when I was three years younger and blissfully ignorant of other people's racialized immobility - to, for the first time, see how institutionalised racism is deeply embedded in Norway's tourist policies, or to tell my friends why they cannot come to Norway for Christmas.
This was my first encounter with how borders can, for some people, be synonymous with "restrictions", "limitations" and "hostility". Whilst I found it heartbreaking that my friends are less mobile than myself due to their nationality, they still have (limited) mobility given their citizenship. Khosravi's auto-ethnography discusses people who are stripped of their citizenship and are not just immobilized, but illegalized in their travels to find safety outside of their country of origin. In Khosravi's travel from Iran to Sweden, he becomes an "anti-citizen", a person who are stripped of human rights given his lack papers to prove his belonging to a nation-state, and consequently a person who is criminalized as a result of this.
This book made me reflect on how I can belong to a country where we punish humans who have suffered more loss than anyone can do. People who have left everything - their family, their homeland - because they realize that safety is no longer viable there. Who risk their life to find safety in a country where they are considered so less worthy that suicide attempts are considered to be a tool to gain attention.
My scepticism towards the West has previously been rooted in their colonial atrocities and systematic oppression and exploitation of people outside their own countries' borders. This book opened my eyes to the vile and unjustifiable treatment of undocumented people within their borders - people they deem as "criminals" and "burdens" because of their own sickening obsession with control, regulation and the continuation of White supremacy.
"Democracy should be judged not only by how they treat their members but by how they treat their strangers."
I am an embodiment of everything I am against.
April 20, 2018
"Midnight passed; the whole landscape was wrapped in silence. The road separated Iran from Afghanistan. It was the border. Shrouded in a deadly stillness was the road; one of the most sanguinary borders in the world laid in wait for its next prey. It was a moonless night. 'Good! The darkness shelters us', said my smuggler. Indeed, it is not fair for him to be called a smuggler , as it was he who rescued me from certain death in a dreadful war. The gravel road separated two states, defining two sorts of human beings. It was not a road but a wall - according to law - invisible to the eyes.
'If I take a step', I thought, 'I will be somewhere else. When my foot touches the ground on the other side of the road, I will not be the same person. If I take this step, I will be an "illegal" person and the world will never be the same again'. That night I took that step and my odyssey of 'illegality' began." (ix).
This book was wonderful. Profound, rich in narrative detail, full of interesting characters, and engaged with theoretical concepts related to borders, illegality, forced migration, return to the homeland, and smuggling, without being dense. An accessible read for anyone interested in these stories of displacement, belonging and exile, and related issues.
'If I take a step', I thought, 'I will be somewhere else. When my foot touches the ground on the other side of the road, I will not be the same person. If I take this step, I will be an "illegal" person and the world will never be the same again'. That night I took that step and my odyssey of 'illegality' began." (ix).
This book was wonderful. Profound, rich in narrative detail, full of interesting characters, and engaged with theoretical concepts related to borders, illegality, forced migration, return to the homeland, and smuggling, without being dense. An accessible read for anyone interested in these stories of displacement, belonging and exile, and related issues.
March 14, 2016
Highly relevant and interesting read for anyone interested in the fate and situation of emigration from the middle east. I would want to say that I couldn't put it down, but I had to, because I got so angry. This is the book to read if you want to express your opinion on closing borders.
February 10, 2017
A beautifully-written autoethnography that captures some of the hardships endured in between border crossings.
January 16, 2021
Lettura che dovrebbe essere obbligatoria.
December 5, 2021
Libro bellissimo, interessantissimo, forse un po’ vecchio (del 2009), ma pieno di spunti per comprendere meglio la situazione migratoria odierna. Consiglio assolutamente
June 13, 2014
With an attentive eye, Shahram Khosravi observes the politics of migration and border-crossing in his book Illegal Traveller: An Ethnography of Borders (2010). As the subtitle of the book reveals, Khosravi tells the story of himself alongside that of many others who found themselves, in the course of their lives, in the liminal condition of crossing borders of any kind, both tangible and intangible, real and imaginary, “visible and invisible.” By examining borders in different, at times contradictory, contexts, Khosravi criticizes the politics of nation-states and citizenship, two political constructs that are defined by the very concept of border in today’s globalized world.
Illegal Traveller is not only an auto-ethnography but also a lucid example of critical ethnography. D. Soyini Madison defines critical ethnography as “an ethical responsibility to address processes of unfairness or injustice within a particular lived domain” (2005: 5). Khosravi locates the “processes of unfairness and injustice” within the “lived domain” of asylum seekers, undocumented immigrants, refugees, or simply to put it in his word, “border transgressors.” As Madison distinguishes a critical ethnography from a conventional one through its “political purpose,” we can observe throughout Khosravi’s book, how he vehemently negotiates the political dimensions of the very intimate aspect of border-crossers’ bodies and lives. In Khosravi’s view, not only the lives of “border transgressors’ but also their bodies are politicized through the ritual of border crossing. The politicization of the bodies is taken place by the process of “dehumanization” marked by extreme gendered and racialized rules.
By providing ample ethnographic examples in the form of “biographical vignettes,” Khosravi demonstrates different stages of what he refers to as “the performance of border rituals.” This performance begins with the leaving one’s own country regulated by a nation-state, followed by a state of liminality occurring between the borders of two or more nation states which ends, at the best, in the condition of “homelessness.” This condition is pronounced by feelings of, as the author illustrates, shame, fear, and non-belonging to home or anywhere else. For him, as long as the capitalist rules of citizenship and nation-states persist, human beings are doomed to find themselves in such predicaments, to feel and internalize such sentiments. The internalization of conditions of “inequity” and “inferiority” is, according to Khosravi, imposed from outside forces to the border-crossers. This internalization is a result of tension between otherness and belong-ness. Khosravi sees only one way out of this condition and that is universalizing and de-territorializing the state of feeling at home everywhere, or to put it in Khosravi’s term “de-territorializing the state of homelessness.” He argues that only in the condition of “[homelessness] humanity is not territorialized” (2010:95). In his view, as he elucidates, “homelessness as a paradigm, as a way of being in the world, as a lifestyle, as ethical and aesthetic normativity opens the door to accepting the other as she is, not as how we want her to be. Only when home has vanished and humanity is no longer territorialized, only then, there will be a chance for humanity” (2010:96).
Khosravi structures his book based on a chronological order of different stages of the performance of border-crossing. These stages are summarized in seven short chapters, each highlighting specific themes and issues related to each stage, such as race, gender, identity politics, power relation and also hospitality. The author explores these themes and their relations through juxtaposing his auto-ethnographic experiences with theories, particularly those related to borders. By incorporating theories of scholars such as Theodore Adorno, Hanna Arendt and Walter Benjamin who not only observed but also were exposed to the violence of borders, Khosravi illustrates how, following Arendt, “The Right to have Rights” (the title of his final chapter), is crucial to attain. In his part observational, part foretelling approach in this chapter, Khosravi warns his reader that if we do not strive for obtaining such a right, we would lose our humanity; and the world would take a path to deterioration. Only through fostering this right, “the right to have rights, we would be able to achieve a balanced world, a world that is not based on power relations between the oppressor and oppressed. The construct of nation-state bestows power upon some and deprives others of power. It reduces the concept of citizenship to “civil rights.” According to this system, as Khosravi explains, there is no right outside of the system of nation-state. Hence, “there is no space for humanity” (2010:122).The “right to have rights” can be achieved, in his view, by “approaching history from the point of view of the defeated,” the oppressed. Even though he acknowledges that this approach “results in a philosophy of ‘the organization’ of pessimism,’” he asks his reader to view this pessimism, not as a contemplative sentiment, but an active, organized, practical pessimism used as a political strategy to prevent the imminent dangers looming over humanity” (2010:131).
As someone who was born and grew up in the same country as the author and as someone who has crossed many borders, though not illegally, not only I found this book intriguing and compelling,but I also believe it provides those who have crossed borders of any kind with a lens to look differently at their past and to achieve a better understanding of what border means and what they have achieved by crossing them.
The book is, indeed, a thought-provoking, inspiring critical auto-ethnography. And although I agree with the author that our humanity is at risk, after reading the book, I needed to ask myself if Khosravi’s practical pessimism is at all attainable? If we can eradicate borders as long as students are educated at schools to strive for capitalist ambitions. More importantly, how are we supposed to replace so deeply entrenched constructs of nation-states and citizenships with a state of homelessness? Through his attentive observations and close interactions with asylum seekers, undocumented immigrants and refugees, Khosravi succeeds in deciphering the multi-layered meaning of borders and border-crossing. However, one wishes for more analytical accounts of the nation-state, its politics and mechanism, through which we might be able to find other ways, more practical ones to deconstruct or improve the status quo of our current borders. These questions should not be considered as a critique of Khosravi’s book but rather suggestions for further research in this area. I believe Khosravi’s work is a significant contribution not only to scholarly work in Anthropology but also other disciplines in social sciences and humanity.
Illegal Traveller is not only an auto-ethnography but also a lucid example of critical ethnography. D. Soyini Madison defines critical ethnography as “an ethical responsibility to address processes of unfairness or injustice within a particular lived domain” (2005: 5). Khosravi locates the “processes of unfairness and injustice” within the “lived domain” of asylum seekers, undocumented immigrants, refugees, or simply to put it in his word, “border transgressors.” As Madison distinguishes a critical ethnography from a conventional one through its “political purpose,” we can observe throughout Khosravi’s book, how he vehemently negotiates the political dimensions of the very intimate aspect of border-crossers’ bodies and lives. In Khosravi’s view, not only the lives of “border transgressors’ but also their bodies are politicized through the ritual of border crossing. The politicization of the bodies is taken place by the process of “dehumanization” marked by extreme gendered and racialized rules.
By providing ample ethnographic examples in the form of “biographical vignettes,” Khosravi demonstrates different stages of what he refers to as “the performance of border rituals.” This performance begins with the leaving one’s own country regulated by a nation-state, followed by a state of liminality occurring between the borders of two or more nation states which ends, at the best, in the condition of “homelessness.” This condition is pronounced by feelings of, as the author illustrates, shame, fear, and non-belonging to home or anywhere else. For him, as long as the capitalist rules of citizenship and nation-states persist, human beings are doomed to find themselves in such predicaments, to feel and internalize such sentiments. The internalization of conditions of “inequity” and “inferiority” is, according to Khosravi, imposed from outside forces to the border-crossers. This internalization is a result of tension between otherness and belong-ness. Khosravi sees only one way out of this condition and that is universalizing and de-territorializing the state of feeling at home everywhere, or to put it in Khosravi’s term “de-territorializing the state of homelessness.” He argues that only in the condition of “[homelessness] humanity is not territorialized” (2010:95). In his view, as he elucidates, “homelessness as a paradigm, as a way of being in the world, as a lifestyle, as ethical and aesthetic normativity opens the door to accepting the other as she is, not as how we want her to be. Only when home has vanished and humanity is no longer territorialized, only then, there will be a chance for humanity” (2010:96).
Khosravi structures his book based on a chronological order of different stages of the performance of border-crossing. These stages are summarized in seven short chapters, each highlighting specific themes and issues related to each stage, such as race, gender, identity politics, power relation and also hospitality. The author explores these themes and their relations through juxtaposing his auto-ethnographic experiences with theories, particularly those related to borders. By incorporating theories of scholars such as Theodore Adorno, Hanna Arendt and Walter Benjamin who not only observed but also were exposed to the violence of borders, Khosravi illustrates how, following Arendt, “The Right to have Rights” (the title of his final chapter), is crucial to attain. In his part observational, part foretelling approach in this chapter, Khosravi warns his reader that if we do not strive for obtaining such a right, we would lose our humanity; and the world would take a path to deterioration. Only through fostering this right, “the right to have rights, we would be able to achieve a balanced world, a world that is not based on power relations between the oppressor and oppressed. The construct of nation-state bestows power upon some and deprives others of power. It reduces the concept of citizenship to “civil rights.” According to this system, as Khosravi explains, there is no right outside of the system of nation-state. Hence, “there is no space for humanity” (2010:122).The “right to have rights” can be achieved, in his view, by “approaching history from the point of view of the defeated,” the oppressed. Even though he acknowledges that this approach “results in a philosophy of ‘the organization’ of pessimism,’” he asks his reader to view this pessimism, not as a contemplative sentiment, but an active, organized, practical pessimism used as a political strategy to prevent the imminent dangers looming over humanity” (2010:131).
As someone who was born and grew up in the same country as the author and as someone who has crossed many borders, though not illegally, not only I found this book intriguing and compelling,but I also believe it provides those who have crossed borders of any kind with a lens to look differently at their past and to achieve a better understanding of what border means and what they have achieved by crossing them.
The book is, indeed, a thought-provoking, inspiring critical auto-ethnography. And although I agree with the author that our humanity is at risk, after reading the book, I needed to ask myself if Khosravi’s practical pessimism is at all attainable? If we can eradicate borders as long as students are educated at schools to strive for capitalist ambitions. More importantly, how are we supposed to replace so deeply entrenched constructs of nation-states and citizenships with a state of homelessness? Through his attentive observations and close interactions with asylum seekers, undocumented immigrants and refugees, Khosravi succeeds in deciphering the multi-layered meaning of borders and border-crossing. However, one wishes for more analytical accounts of the nation-state, its politics and mechanism, through which we might be able to find other ways, more practical ones to deconstruct or improve the status quo of our current borders. These questions should not be considered as a critique of Khosravi’s book but rather suggestions for further research in this area. I believe Khosravi’s work is a significant contribution not only to scholarly work in Anthropology but also other disciplines in social sciences and humanity.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 14, 2023
Incredible, breathtaking, horrific. A seamless blending of narrative and theory, very aptly called an autoethnography. Khosravi makes very clear how borders are and have always been weapons of colonialism, and intentionally constructed sites of human sacrifice at the altar of the state.
Read. This. Book.
Read. This. Book.
November 28, 2024
"Nessuno può chiudere la porta del mondo".
April 3, 2025
Non credo di avere il "diritto" di parlarne, in ogni caso è terribilmente illuminante, lo consiglio ai sostenitori di Salvini e compagnia.
Ma forse non arriverebbero a capirlo, poverini...
Ma forse non arriverebbero a capirlo, poverini...
June 5, 2014
Shahram Khosravi’s text, ‘Illegal’ Traveler: An Auto-Ethnography of Borders depicts the reality of a politicized person displaced through immigration and refugee status by the nation-state structure of the world. Through description of his own migrant and refugee history, Khosravi makes cross-cultural claims to the human smuggling and trafficking world that migrant people experience. Understanding the ultimate double absence (88) that emerges once a person begins a journey (as well as in the idealized refugee ending), Khosravi allows the reader to contemplate the layers involved in ‘illegal’ immigration. Khosravi also creates empathy in the reader by illustrating the binary the ‘illegal’ traveler is placed into opposite the unified “national identity of citizens” (114) that government uses to create a sense of national pride. In the U.S. some may view this as the “illegal alien,” in comparison the citizen becomes the center with others at the periphery of society. Through questioning the representation of illegal immigrants for national unity, Khosravi analyzes the institutional assignment of “human rights”. Human rights are explained as solely given when a human falls under the jurisdiction of a political community (122).
The binaries Khosravi claims through the stories begin in his own experience traveling from Iran to Sweden (across various other nations) to focus his argument onto one image of migration and add pathos to engage the reader with the global issue. However, this auto-ethnography provides a global perspective by making parallel examples to other border regions with histories of migration. The text’s method of narrative writing allows the issue to resonate with the reader, yet still engages theory to support the narrative and descriptive passages. The book provides significance by questioning the politics of representation of refugees and other migrant people. Khosravi demonstrates an understanding of the larger influence a text can have on policy when ethnographic theory successfully combines with prose.
Through Khosravi’s explanation of different components of migrant or refugee life, he demonstrates how the individual becomes politicized in their experience without a nation. Khosravi describes how his private life became public to government officials because of his anti-citizen status (97). In traveling even after attaining refugee status, he often experienced conflict from his host country to his ‘rights’. Khosravi describes how immigrant communities often embody ideal citizens to escape conflict and attention from the government authority, yet are consistently ostracized despite attempting to fit a national image. The text provides accounts of immigrants experiencing exclusion most at the final destinations of their journey. Khosravi himself demonstrates a dystopia experience in Sweden, despite the immense journey he took to arrive there. Khosravi describes the final destination as a place that creates the immigrant as the “anti-citizen” to create a sense of national identity (116). The text shows another instance of the immigrant becoming politicized as an image of resistance to national security, despite immigrant communities and migration being part of nation’s economics.
Khosravi also demonstrates the victimization of refugees to the global audience through his own experience and the abstract policies that grant hospitality, but encourage a victimized representation of the refugee. In the misrepresentations Khosravi experienced in Sweden and describes, his theme of hospitality becomes highlighted by the opposing theme of hostility in migrant experience. If a refugee does not appear to fit the victimized image European countries described desired, the space available becomes exclusive again (126). As someone studying mainly through visual culture, Khosravi’s explanation of representations of refugees provides another lens to view and analyze arts in media, especially the use of arts in activism. The representations in the media reinforce the creation of a “home” that is able to select those who’s rights are worth protecting (129). Khosravi demonstrates how refugee presentation takes away agency from individuals and reinforces the patriarchal structure of the nation-state citizenship. He describes the refugee through a condition of transience in the lack of stability, as well as creates an objectification of the “Other” male and female (76). His accounts do not provide an alternative or method to aid the representation of migrant people, but through his writing he allows the reader to understand their position in relation of migrant people, especially if the reader only knows the experience of citizenship. By bringing attention to the baggage of immigration policy and “human rights”, Khosravi allows his auto-ethnography to give back to the community he advocates for and encourage global acknowledgement of the issue.
The binaries Khosravi claims through the stories begin in his own experience traveling from Iran to Sweden (across various other nations) to focus his argument onto one image of migration and add pathos to engage the reader with the global issue. However, this auto-ethnography provides a global perspective by making parallel examples to other border regions with histories of migration. The text’s method of narrative writing allows the issue to resonate with the reader, yet still engages theory to support the narrative and descriptive passages. The book provides significance by questioning the politics of representation of refugees and other migrant people. Khosravi demonstrates an understanding of the larger influence a text can have on policy when ethnographic theory successfully combines with prose.
Through Khosravi’s explanation of different components of migrant or refugee life, he demonstrates how the individual becomes politicized in their experience without a nation. Khosravi describes how his private life became public to government officials because of his anti-citizen status (97). In traveling even after attaining refugee status, he often experienced conflict from his host country to his ‘rights’. Khosravi describes how immigrant communities often embody ideal citizens to escape conflict and attention from the government authority, yet are consistently ostracized despite attempting to fit a national image. The text provides accounts of immigrants experiencing exclusion most at the final destinations of their journey. Khosravi himself demonstrates a dystopia experience in Sweden, despite the immense journey he took to arrive there. Khosravi describes the final destination as a place that creates the immigrant as the “anti-citizen” to create a sense of national identity (116). The text shows another instance of the immigrant becoming politicized as an image of resistance to national security, despite immigrant communities and migration being part of nation’s economics.
Khosravi also demonstrates the victimization of refugees to the global audience through his own experience and the abstract policies that grant hospitality, but encourage a victimized representation of the refugee. In the misrepresentations Khosravi experienced in Sweden and describes, his theme of hospitality becomes highlighted by the opposing theme of hostility in migrant experience. If a refugee does not appear to fit the victimized image European countries described desired, the space available becomes exclusive again (126). As someone studying mainly through visual culture, Khosravi’s explanation of representations of refugees provides another lens to view and analyze arts in media, especially the use of arts in activism. The representations in the media reinforce the creation of a “home” that is able to select those who’s rights are worth protecting (129). Khosravi demonstrates how refugee presentation takes away agency from individuals and reinforces the patriarchal structure of the nation-state citizenship. He describes the refugee through a condition of transience in the lack of stability, as well as creates an objectification of the “Other” male and female (76). His accounts do not provide an alternative or method to aid the representation of migrant people, but through his writing he allows the reader to understand their position in relation of migrant people, especially if the reader only knows the experience of citizenship. By bringing attention to the baggage of immigration policy and “human rights”, Khosravi allows his auto-ethnography to give back to the community he advocates for and encourage global acknowledgement of the issue.
September 26, 2025
Da leggere almeno una volta nella vita.
December 2, 2016
This is a great little book about borders, refugees, nation-states, etc. It is intellectual without being impenetrable or condescending and it is readable without oversimplifying or...being condescending. He has an interesting discussion about "refugeeness" near the end of the book, which is (obviously I'm roughly paraphrasing) the bundle of assumptions and expectations that people make about what it means to be a refugee that people attempting to resettle are then expected to perform in all of these arbitrary and sometimes humiliating and degrading ways. Highly recommended for anyone interested in refugee issues and/or Iran.
January 16, 2021
A metà tra un racconto autobiografico e una ricerca antropologica, questo libro propone una serie di spunti di riflessione fondamentali per la società in cui viviamo. Affronta la questione della migrazione in tutte le sue sfaccettature e offre un nuovo modo di concepire il confine.
Read
December 3, 2020*for school*
just like the others i would never read this on my own but academically speaking this was excellent in every way and I want all my papers to be exactly like this
just like the others i would never read this on my own but academically speaking this was excellent in every way and I want all my papers to be exactly like this
December 10, 2020
Everyone should read this book.
November 4, 2023
One of the best reads so far. It is a mixture of political, anthropological, and philosophical analysis and the writer's story of escape from Iran in the late eighties, which is touching. Khosravi tries to explain and describe - among many other aspects that come with refuge - the strange liminal space between borders that may be internalized and turn humans into borders. I highly recommend this short but very informative and poetically written masterpiece.
June 30, 2022
I read this a while back for an online book club and at the end we got to chat with the author, Professor Shahram Khosravi. (It was amazing)
All I can say is this is a must read!
All I can say is this is a must read!
January 22, 2024
Sad and beautiful and deeply necessary.
May 16, 2024
Penso che tanti adulti dovrebbero leggere questo libro
December 18, 2020
العادة لا أتحدث عن كتب قد قرأتها، ولكن هناك بعض الكتب تجعلنا ننطق لأصالتها، دائماً ما تستهويني الكتب المبنية على التجارب الشخصية والحوارات الداخلية التي تجعل من قصصنا الفردية قيماً إنسانية سامية، الكتاب "Illegal’ Traveller'" المسافر غير القانوني للكاتب الإيراني Shahram Khosravi، وضع كلمة غير القانوني بين قوسين ليلفت النظر لقسوة المصطلح وعدم ملائمته لوصف المهاجرين لأن كلمة غير قانوني تؤهل الدولة بفرض عقاب على هذا الشخض وحرمانه من حقوق السياسية والانسانية بشكل عام، الكتاب هو إثنوغرافية ذاتية عن رحلته في الهجرة للهرب من التجنيد الإجباري في إيران إلى أفغانستان ثم باكستان ثم الهند إلى السويد عن طريق مُهربي البشر(smugglers)، الكتاب غير مترجم باللغة العربية، قرأته باللغة الانجليزية، الكتاب يشكل وعي رائع و بنفس الوقت مؤلم عن الحدود وعابري الحدود، خوسرافي أهدى الكتاب في المقدمة لإدوارد سعيد و والتر بنيامين، وسرده بطريقة أدبية شعرية نوعاً ما لأنه بيعتبر هذه الكتابة توصل المشاعر الإنسانية بشكل أقرب للقلب والعقل.
الكاتب خوسرافي نطق بصدق وعمق وأصالة تجربته ك مهاجر سري و بنظر القانون مهاجر غير قانوني، جعل خوسرافي من فكرة مهربي البشر ك منقذي الحياة لمن لا حيلة لهم في بلادهم ولكن لا ينكر استغلال بعض هؤلاء المهربين لبعض اللاجئين بطريقة قاسية، الكتاب لخَّص تماماً أنثروبولوجيا الحدود، تحدث عن السياسات البيروقراطية الني تتبعها الدولة على الحدود لتفرض سيطرتها على المهاجر وتُجرده من حقوقه السياسية وتعامله ك كائن بيولوجي متعري من حقه في الحياة(Reduced to bare life)، وأثر هذه السياسات على تشكيل فكرة الناس عن المهاجر كأنه 'زومبي' أو ‘كائن فضائي لا يُشكل إلا خطراً على مجتمعاتهم، لم يتحدث فقط عن الحدود الظاهرة الواضحة المبنية على شكل حواجز ومعابر وما إلى ذلك وإنما عن الحدود الداخلية المخفية التي يبنيها البشر بشكل تراكمي داخل عقلهم فتخلق أفكار عنصرية ضد الآخر، خوسرافي نفسه تعرض لمحاولة قتل في السويد من قبل شخص عنصري وتعرض لنظرات التهميش والاذلال من قبل الناس من حوله، فاستخدم عبارة سارتر المشهورة "الآخرون هم الجحيم" واستدل بفرانز فانون في كتاباته عن الكولونيالية والعنصرية، وكيف نحن نعيش في عالم الأبارتايد (الفصل العنصري).
تحدث الكاتب عن الصراع الداخلي الذي لم يفارقه أبداً طوال رحلته، وعن فكرة الوطن، البيت، المنفى، الوقت، المسافة، الذات، الذاكرة، شعور الانتماء، الحنين، الاشتياق، والأم. سرد فظائع الحدود وما يمر بها عابريها من تحولات جذرية في ذاتيتهم وحياتهم تبعاً لظروف معينة في وقت معين فتصبح الحدود متحركة معهم في كل مكان يخطونه أو يصبحون هم أنفسهم الحدود، و كتب عن مفهوم الجنوسة عبر الحدود وكيف يصبح الجنس عاملاً لاستغلال المهاجرين وكيف أيضاً يستخدمه المهاجرين ليعبروا الحدود سالمين فتصبح الحدود مكان ل عمل ليس مسموحاً في مكان آخر، وعن ذكاء المهاجر في التلاعب بالقانون وتحدي السياسات العفنة ضد المهاجر، مهما كانت صارمة دائماً يجد المهاجر مهرب منها، وأيضاً عن التحولات الثقافية والاجتماعية والتاريخية العابرة للحدود، وعن القانون وسياسات المفوضية السامية للأمم المتحدة لشؤون اللاجئين في آلية الوصول إليها من قبل اللاجئ وكيف تنظر ل اللاجئ على إنه 'لاجئ مميز ومستحق' بضعفه وهشاشته وملابسه الرثة وفقره وقلة حيلته، وكيف يتم تطبيق سياسات الاستبعاد والطرد ل اللاجئين المنبوذين والمهمشين والمستبعدين في كل مكان.
وأيضاً تحدث عن فكرة الضياع في أبعاد الوقت والمكان والمسافة، المنفى يعني له الحلم بالرجوع إلى الوطن، وأيضاً المنفى هو عندما تعيش في مكان وتحلم في مكان آخر، وأضاف أن المنفى يجعلك تشعر أن العالم كله سجن، وأيضاً ذكر عن فكرة الللامكان حيث تكون منفصل عن التاريخ والهوية والثقافة وعن الشعور المؤقت الذي يسرقه الوقت وغياب الأماكن المحيطة عن الذاكرة، في تجربته الطويلة على الحدود من مكان إلى آخر جعل خوسرافي من تجربته شيئاً ملموساً بداخلي لا أستطيع شرحه ولكن أراه وألمسه وأحسه، جعلني أرى أشياء لم أرها من قبل ولكن شعرت بها بحوارات مع أصدقاء مروا بنفس التجربة وأمور شعرت بها ك إنسانة دائماً ذاتها مرتبطة بالهجرة من زمن أجدادها إلى الآن.
الكاتب خوسرافي نطق بصدق وعمق وأصالة تجربته ك مهاجر سري و بنظر القانون مهاجر غير قانوني، جعل خوسرافي من فكرة مهربي البشر ك منقذي الحياة لمن لا حيلة لهم في بلادهم ولكن لا ينكر استغلال بعض هؤلاء المهربين لبعض اللاجئين بطريقة قاسية، الكتاب لخَّص تماماً أنثروبولوجيا الحدود، تحدث عن السياسات البيروقراطية الني تتبعها الدولة على الحدود لتفرض سيطرتها على المهاجر وتُجرده من حقوقه السياسية وتعامله ك كائن بيولوجي متعري من حقه في الحياة(Reduced to bare life)، وأثر هذه السياسات على تشكيل فكرة الناس عن المهاجر كأنه 'زومبي' أو ‘كائن فضائي لا يُشكل إلا خطراً على مجتمعاتهم، لم يتحدث فقط عن الحدود الظاهرة الواضحة المبنية على شكل حواجز ومعابر وما إلى ذلك وإنما عن الحدود الداخلية المخفية التي يبنيها البشر بشكل تراكمي داخل عقلهم فتخلق أفكار عنصرية ضد الآخر، خوسرافي نفسه تعرض لمحاولة قتل في السويد من قبل شخص عنصري وتعرض لنظرات التهميش والاذلال من قبل الناس من حوله، فاستخدم عبارة سارتر المشهورة "الآخرون هم الجحيم" واستدل بفرانز فانون في كتاباته عن الكولونيالية والعنصرية، وكيف نحن نعيش في عالم الأبارتايد (الفصل العنصري).
تحدث الكاتب عن الصراع الداخلي الذي لم يفارقه أبداً طوال رحلته، وعن فكرة الوطن، البيت، المنفى، الوقت، المسافة، الذات، الذاكرة، شعور الانتماء، الحنين، الاشتياق، والأم. سرد فظائع الحدود وما يمر بها عابريها من تحولات جذرية في ذاتيتهم وحياتهم تبعاً لظروف معينة في وقت معين فتصبح الحدود متحركة معهم في كل مكان يخطونه أو يصبحون هم أنفسهم الحدود، و كتب عن مفهوم الجنوسة عبر الحدود وكيف يصبح الجنس عاملاً لاستغلال المهاجرين وكيف أيضاً يستخدمه المهاجرين ليعبروا الحدود سالمين فتصبح الحدود مكان ل عمل ليس مسموحاً في مكان آخر، وعن ذكاء المهاجر في التلاعب بالقانون وتحدي السياسات العفنة ضد المهاجر، مهما كانت صارمة دائماً يجد المهاجر مهرب منها، وأيضاً عن التحولات الثقافية والاجتماعية والتاريخية العابرة للحدود، وعن القانون وسياسات المفوضية السامية للأمم المتحدة لشؤون اللاجئين في آلية الوصول إليها من قبل اللاجئ وكيف تنظر ل اللاجئ على إنه 'لاجئ مميز ومستحق' بضعفه وهشاشته وملابسه الرثة وفقره وقلة حيلته، وكيف يتم تطبيق سياسات الاستبعاد والطرد ل اللاجئين المنبوذين والمهمشين والمستبعدين في كل مكان.
وأيضاً تحدث عن فكرة الضياع في أبعاد الوقت والمكان والمسافة، المنفى يعني له الحلم بالرجوع إلى الوطن، وأيضاً المنفى هو عندما تعيش في مكان وتحلم في مكان آخر، وأضاف أن المنفى يجعلك تشعر أن العالم كله سجن، وأيضاً ذكر عن فكرة الللامكان حيث تكون منفصل عن التاريخ والهوية والثقافة وعن الشعور المؤقت الذي يسرقه الوقت وغياب الأماكن المحيطة عن الذاكرة، في تجربته الطويلة على الحدود من مكان إلى آخر جعل خوسرافي من تجربته شيئاً ملموساً بداخلي لا أستطيع شرحه ولكن أراه وألمسه وأحسه، جعلني أرى أشياء لم أرها من قبل ولكن شعرت بها بحوارات مع أصدقاء مروا بنفس التجربة وأمور شعرت بها ك إنسانة دائماً ذاتها مرتبطة بالهجرة من زمن أجدادها إلى الآن.
November 18, 2021
I really enjoyed reading through the lenses of the writer’s first hand experience about the Iranian migrating route and the duality of migrant identity. How they experience and feel during their journey to the west and how European migrating regulations expect them act in order to be “worthy” of asylum.
November 20, 2019
I read this book for my Children, Migration and Transnational Childhoods class, and it tells Shahram Khosravi's experience of leaving Iran until he finally reached Sweden. Along the way, Khosravi describes his struggles with crossing the Iranian border to Afghanistan then Pakistan and India before reaching Sweden, staying in refugee camps, a hotel with other undocumented migrants, and an apartment with 15 other people. Once in Sweden, his struggle did not end for he faced racism and detention. Along with Khosravi's own narrative, Khosravi includes biographical vignettes of other undocumented migrants as well as human smugglers and their experiences with crossing borders. Due to the auto-ethnographical nature of the book, it is easy to read and follow, and the book is eye-opening to the struggles many refugees face when trying to seek asylum.
January 30, 2021
Un libro assolutamente da leggere e capire. Khosravi utilizza la sua esperienza di profugo per delineare uno studio auto-etnografico dell’emigrazione e della vita dei richiedenti asilo. Vengono narrate e analizzate le paure, le difficoltà, le speranze, le delusioni, i rischi e tutto ciò che circonda la vita di un richiedente asilo in fuga dal proprio paese. La ricca bibliografia permette di approfondire gli argomenti trattati. Il testo è fluido e scorrevole, permettendo di apprezzare maggiormente i contenuti.
June 9, 2020
I found it very odd and at times out of place as it is a mix between personal life experiences, as a migrant and refugee, and at times it is an ethnographic work by a university professor. The terms used are at times incorrect, mixing refugees, migrants, asylum-seekers.
I enjoyed the parts relating to his personal life the most, it was very interesting to discover what the author has gone through since the 80s in Iran to the 2000 in Sweden with all that went on in between.
I enjoyed the parts relating to his personal life the most, it was very interesting to discover what the author has gone through since the 80s in Iran to the 2000 in Sweden with all that went on in between.
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